In Focus: Chicago-Based Artist Depicts Experiences of Hawaii in Exhibit at Crossing Arts Alliance

Trotter Alexander has driven many times to deliver his art, but this time, he drove over 500 miles from Chicago to showcase his art in Brainerd, Minnesota.

An exhibit of Alexander’s work, titled “The Story of Ka Makana O’ka,” is now on display at the Crossing Arts Alliance. The inspiration behind his paintings come from his own personal experiences of Hawaii, and in this collection, Alexander depicts what Hawaii is from the word wahine, meaning “woman.”

“I chose [a] more elderly woman as the subject piece, and chose her facial expressions to be very strong and stern, and that’s just because from my own experiences, pulling my own inspiration from my experiences, with a lot of the Hawaiian island, I always saw them to be very strong, very stern,” said Alexander.

Many of his paintings contain elements and depictions of fire, and it’s why he has a very unique way of swinging a brush.

“[How] passionate and violent those strokes are, how it’s super organic or … have a lot of motion, and that’s just something I, with my own artistic stylization of things, interpreted how I wanted that fire to be in this whole collection,” explained Alexander.

The exhibit will be on display at the Crossing Arts Alliance through Jan. 28. More information is available on the Crossing Arts Alliance website.